Last week, the Orange County California district attorney’s office and other DAs settled a consumer lawsuit against Goop – a lifestyle brand and website created by actress Gwyneth Paltrow. The suit contended that Goop made health claims for various products but did not have substantiation to back up those claims.
For example, Goop touted “Inner Judge Flower Essence Blend” this way:
You can either mix this stuff in water and drink it, or apply it externally to your body “over the liver.” It supposedly would help you get rid of guilt and shame, replacing those feelings with compassion and forgiveness, so as to prevent a spiral into depression. Oh please. What is this, a psychologist in a bottle?
For this crock of **** and unsubstantiated claims about two other products, Paltrow’s company agreed to pay $145,000 in settlement, without admitting any wrongdoing. So much for the company’s statement of values:
We test the waters so that you don’t have to. We will never recommend something that we don’t love, and think worthy of your time and your wallet. We value your trust above all things.
The case against Goop arose because our friends at TruthinAdvertising.com cited more than 50 unsubstantiated health claims made by Paltrow’s company, and sent them to some of the California DAs.
Here are some of the claims made for other flower essence products previously available on the Goop website. They include products to help “cure”: a broken heart such as from death of a loved one; emotional trauma from divorce, OCD, or bad dreams; infertility; auto-immune conditions; writer’s block; perfectionism, talking too much, etc.
Scroll down the list.
For more about the case against Goop, here is an ABC Nightline story.
I’m sure a lot of people consider Paltrow a healer and health professional, but her claims for her products are obviously hype in a bottle, and she lacks formal training. If you have medical or mental problems, see a real doctor.
“Flower essence is scentless and odorless”. Hmmmm Something is fishy here, if you go back to cookbooks from the 1800’s, or before, they used flower infused water or oils to add flavor and scent. So what IS this stuff?!
Hard to believe anyone would believe these ridiculous claims.
The sad part here is that Goop would take advantage of consumers in this way, and even sadder is that people would believe this crap.
These should all be considered novelty items, and the labels updated to reflect that. Otherwise, Goop may as well be selling snake oil.
Anyone who believes this kind of stuff deserves to be out the $$, and I’ll gladly sell them some shares in the bridge I own in Brooklyn.
Time Magazine recently published an article on how well placebos work, even when the user *knows* they are a placebo. Sometimes the bottle is even labeled “Placebo Pill”, yet it works. If it works for physical conditions, I’m sure it would work for psychological ones. Not sure how regulatory issues should deal with it. No question sometimes the stuff works.
I find it very sad that a pretty face and a round on the talk show circuit is confused with intelligence or that all you need is pretty words and psychobabble to qualify as a “cure”
I’d remind Robert that it’s not the “placebo” that’s working on you it’s your mind.